While Apple has hit a home run with a certain niche of their markets (myself included) I wonder if they're going to have to play with their pricing model a bit more and the marketing to get more people to switch to the Mini. I was in the Apple store this weekend, and they had Minis up and running, with the Apple keyboard and mouse and the 20" LCD display. The price card mentioned the monitor in very small type, and said nothing about the keyboard and mouse that I saw. If you thought you were getting a full computer set, you would have had to find out fom the sales staff - possibly after you said you'd buy one - that you needed the keyboard and mouse. And the Apple set is $59. They may have to come down on that item, or be more aggressive about informing the retail store customers that you can use whatever USB keyboard and mouse you want. People looking for the Mini know this. A lot of the potential "switch" market doesn't. The Apple wireless keyboard is even more expensive, and it requires Bluetooth. That may have also had a bit of a hand in them lowering Bluetooth prices.
One mistake it looks like they're making is the same one everyone else with the latest "iPod killer" has made... you're not going to beat the iPod by trying to compete on features and price. As good a product the iPod is, it's got some features that you can't duplicate easily. One is simply the marketing job Apple has done with it from day one. Anything that wants to compete is going to have to make people think "ooh, I want one of those, not an iPod." And with the iPod aura, that's going to be tough. Then there's the little matter of design. The iPod was a very well thought out design from day one, and it's evolved over the years into an even better product. The interface is about as intuitive as you're going to get. The product is solidly built. And the actual product itself is smooth and sleek to look at and handle. I've used my brother's Zen 40gb, and while it's a good product, it just isn't as good as the iPod. Much of that is the aforementioned design. Also, Creative players, are, AFAIK, not Mac compatible. (At least they don't express anything about Mac compatibility on their site.) With the possibility of Apple gaining market share via the Mac Mini, this could turn many buyers away from Creative products.
In CMYK, printing a color on top of another color makes things darker. Yellow dots would not show up on the black ink - they would actually darken things up. If you knew exactly what you were looking for, where you were looking for it at, and what a yellow/black overprint looks like, you *might* see it. Obviously, if it is printing on the black, the agencies in question know whee to look and what they're looking for.
You can get a expandable x86 PC for $800. You can also get a new eMac for $800. However, consider a typical graphic arts workstation - one of Apple's strongest suits. You're running Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark (or InDesign), Acrobat, and Distiller, often at the same time. And you're working with files that are in the hundreds of MBs. Considering that you need your files to render quickly so that you're not spending half your time waiting for the system, and that you need a stable system, what kind of money do you think you're going to spend on a x86 PC that can handle that kind of workflow all day, every day? You're not going to be able to build that kind of workhorse PC for much less money than what Apple is charging. If you don't need the $2000 Power Mac workstation, there's far cheaper options available. And if you don't need the $2000 workhorse PC, there's far cheaper options available there too.
I would say it's kind of surprising that they didn't have a backup plan to get the files to the printing plant (i.e. convert to the necessary format, usually pdf in this case, or if possible use the Quark files and eps artwork, burn it to a CD or write to a removable hard drive and drive it to the printing plant)... But considering the dead stop everything goes to at the paper I work at if the network goes down, I'm not surprised. And that's with the printing plant on the premises.
But it can be done. And there realistically should be a backup plan to get the paper to the printer. Chances are, you'll never need it, but the one time you do it can save you millions. Start thinking about all of those ads - those things are friggin' expensive. Now imagine that all of your advertisers are going to want credit. Many of them are going to want the entire cost of the ad written off, and considering how many of them are regular advertisers, they'll be getting their wish. In a major market like Chicago, you can run up into the millions very quickly.
The EzDVD's are out at all the convenience stores in town, and have been for a few months now. I've been asking the clerks - not one of them has sold a single disc.
Incidentally, quite a few people out there have been working on building up their DVD collections. The "play-once" model is a lose-lose for the studios. Let's say Bob buys a few DVDs a month to add to his collection, typically movies that he enjoyed the hell out of and some of which are coming to DVD after a very long wait. (A la SCTV.) Bob isn't going to spend six bucks on a disc that he can't keep on the shelf. But if the Bobs of the world were to adopt the "play-once" model, the studios would sell a $5 disc for each movie - instead of a $15 DVD. These guys have such a fixation on piracy that they'll shoot themselves in the foot to stop it.
This may also appeal to flustered IT departments that are sick of blowing big pieces of their budget on data recovery. When I keep important data on my hard drive instead of on the company's server, I'm risking a write up, particularly if said drive crashes. When a company VP does the same thing, well, hey, that's a VP, let's fork out a couple of thousand bucks to a data recovery company. Going to a web-based system means even the higher-ups have to adhere to the IT departments rules regarding data storage.
This might be a case of NASA unintentionally catching lightning in a bottle. First you have China sending a man into orbit, and also announcing aggressive plans for space and possibly the moon. Then you have the success of the Spirit landing, especially so soon after what's looking like a big setback for the ESA on a similar mission.
We really can't afford to be passed up by China in the space programs. The implications on many fronts, from technological, military, and national stature are too important. As the wars of the 20th century were swung by air superiority, a future war bewtween the US and China could easily be swung by space superiority. (Imagine how blind our forces would be if our satellites were disabled or destroyed.)
And we've proven we can get craft to Mars and land them safely. Granted, there have been some spectacular failures, but the US is the only nation to put functioning equipment on the Martian surface. With humans at the controls we would dramatically lessen the risk of a crash on the surface. There wouldn't be anxiety over whether the airbags were deploying or what petal the ship was landing on. The biggest issue would be getting supplies there ahead of time and being sure they landed. We'd have to send supplies and a means of getting off the surface ahead of time. Astronauts would be spending several months on the surface, and there is no emergency return, so we'd need to be sure that everything is in place.
I think those two factors - a space race with China and our ability to get craft to Mars - came together at the right time. A successful manned Mars mission would be a stunning success for mankind, and if we're going to do it, now is a good time to start the planning process.
We got one in '83. 16K, regular basic. Had it upgraded to 64K extended basic a year later. Along the way I learned a ton on that machine and I had a blast doing it. I built up quite an arsenal of games on that thing. And of course you could always tape that certain pin on a game cartridge, and it wouldn't run until you would type in the correct EXEC code. What that ended up meaning is that I had practically the entire CoCo cartridge collection on a cassette.
There was the myriad of graphics modes on the CoCo - low res (VERY low res), the hi-res "pmode" group, and the semigraphics modes that fell in between. (One of my favorite Coco games, Protector, was written in semigraphics.) You could only get the semigraphics through assembly language.
And of course we were subscribers to Rainbow, and learned to curse effectively while debugging typos after working for hours to type in those programs. Looking back, I don't see why we never did Rainbow on Tape. Speaking of tape, I wore out numerous cassette recorders on that computer. Can't you still hear that low screeching they made when they were running and you wanted to listen to make sure it took? The tapes on the CoCo would load faster than the disk on a C-64. A few friends had C-64s, and I remember wondering why they bothered with a disk if it was going to take so long? That was the main reason CoCo users bought disk drives - they loaded in a hurry. We never did get a disk for ours, and we used that computer almost constantly from the time we got it until '91.
To this day, every time I see one at a yard sale, my wife tells me "don't even think about it" before I can get to it.,..
Google is already a part of the nation's everyday vocabulary. We "google" things when we want to find them. Almost every time internet searching is alluded to in a news story, you'll see "use a search engine, such as Google.com" soon after.
No business is bulletproof, but Google right now is one of the strongest internet names. People like Google because there's only as much whiz-bang as you need, and it's as effective as internet searching as been for the last few years. The main page weighs in, IIRC, at under 13K of bandwidth. Far quicker and less obtrusive than MSN or Amazon. Even on a dial-up connection it's almost instantaneous. You don't get any pop-ups on Google, and for those poor souls unfortunate enough to still use IE, Google even offers a tool that will stop pop-ups. The tools that they offer are useful and unobtrusive. They don't take over or alter your sysem, such as pretty much anything from Microsoft. (And I doubt Google DRM Software is going to be among next year's offered downloads. Unlike Windows Media Player...)
And Google has street smarts that you can't get from any boardroom. For example, news.google.com was a weekend project that a couple of employees threw together. And it got a lot of competitors' attention when they saw just how good a job they did. They're always adapting. I've seen many quotes from discussions long past show up again on message boards, and they're pulled from the Google Groups services.
While Google may not be a utopia, it's got what it needs to stand up to the MS and Amazon assault. A strong base, a smart and adaptable workforce, and great public recognition. The market is adapting to Google, not the other way around. Considering they don't like to sit on their past achievements too much, I think they'll hold up fine.
I should have added that I'm not ripping against Scribus- I'm all for new players in the DTP department, and I intend to try it on my Linux box. I was responding to those who are railing against the price tag of Quark. Incidentally, there's a movement in our IT department to convert to InDesign. Many of the people in the building, though, have no computer savvy whatsoever, and there would be immense retraining involved.
As for direct to plate - it is catching on faster now that the prices of the systems and consumables have dropped. We'll be switching soon. But if you run any more than two plates off, it's actually cheaper to go with film. The plate cost is doubled with CTP. Once you get past two plates, the negative has already paid for itself. Basically, the smaller the newspaper, the bigger the savings. One other thing - there are many mistakes we can fix on negatives before we plate. This will no longer be the case.
We use Quark at our newspaper, naturally. There's a few hundred licenses in the company. It is a damn expensive app. But consumables are even more expensive. We print directly to negatives, and film costs a good chunk of change. If there's a problem, we have to re-print the negs. If we have to re-plate, that's a bunch more money. If we don't know there's a problem till the press starts, there'll be hell to pay. Some papers are using new technology that lets them print directly to the printing plate. The materials for that are even more expensive. With Quark, we know what we're getting when we click "Print." $1000 may be expensive for a program, but we use more than that in film and plates every day. Quark Inc. isn't a very well liked company - but when you know what you're getting for sure in your finished product, that makes all the difference.
I can see what you're thinking there, but you also gotta realize that no one wins the Tour because of superior equipment. Aside from some brand differences, these guys are all on equal bikes. They're all extremely light, and they've all got the latest components.
Furthermore, add in that there's a more than a few people running OS's such as Linux or OSX which require root access to do anything of consequence. That could throw a little wrench in the plans. The RIAA would have to spend so much time hacking into individual computers that it would be no return on investment.
Now, if they actually figured out that the business model is the problem... heck, that makes too much sense. I mean, Apple couldn't possibly be doing well with iTunes Music Store, could they?
Re:42V is for steering, not audio
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42-Volt Autos
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· Score: 1
I have a 2003 Saturn Ion. I haven't heard the first thing about a 42V electrical system, and I've got a good old standard 12V battery in it. It does, however, have electric power steering. I'm not exactly sure that the steering is the reason for the 42V change.
By the way, electric power steering rocks. I've never had a car that can turn as quickly as this one. And since the computer keeps an eye on speed and adjusts steering effort accordingly, it's very driver friendly.
I work at a newspaper in the prepress department... we use Quark 4.11 on older G4 towers. Single 400 mhz processors, 448 MB RAM. The newsroom mostly uses old Blueberry iMacs. Haven't changed since they were installed. I don't think the 5 time hardware upgrade is going to bother the core user base.
Although, I can guarantee, our IT department is itching to get us to OSX...
I work for a newspaper (actually, two, since it's a JOA) and as I watch the presses whir in the next room over, it's easy to see just what a behemoth the entire newspaper printing industry is. I see firsthand how much newsprint is used in a matter of a few hours, and it's staggering. When you think about how many newspapers there are in this country, it's amazing that there's enough trees to supply all of them and still leave a few forests standing. The press outside the door is over three stories high and one hundred fifty feet long. Some operations have many multiples of presses like this. It requires constant maintanence and repair to keep running and printing a million or two pages an hour. All of this costs money. A LOT of money. You would think that newspapers would be eager to chuck all of this, go online, and save millions per year.
But it's not quite that easy. First, the majority of revenues for a newspaper are by far from advertising. More than half the available space in the paper is for ads. And these ads are not cheap, especially when you see color or full page ads. And, like it or not, ads do drive a significant portion of readership. If you're looking to buy a car, or maybe a house, the odds are you've been looking in the paper. You can't read ads as fast online as you can when you've got a whole page of classifieds in front of you. How many newspapers did you pick up when you were looking for your last job? There are more and more job opportunities online, and many companies aggressively recruit online, but a classified "help wanted" ad is extremely effective. Place one and see the applications and resumes flow in. Another point about ads driving readership - grocery ads, coupons, ads for your local electronics store, the weekly Target ad... these all often lead people to buy a paper. It's why the Sunday paper has the largest circulation.
Next, there's the whole easy portability thing. The majority of people don't have a laptop or PDA with them when they're out somewhere, and most of those that do don't have internet access readily available. A newspaper, on the other hand, is easy to take anywhere. Buy it and go. When you're done, you can leave it for the next reader if you want. Or maybe you are the next reader. On the not-too-distant horizon is electronic ink, and that has a greater potential to replace printed newspapers than the web does, for many of the same reasons mentioned here. Although I don't think too many people will be eager to clip the coupons from their e-ink paper. Might get messy.
And last, while the web has made it easier to find news, there is still the cultural mindset that goes with the newspaper. See a story you like, or a photo? Cut it out and stick it on the fridge. Historical front page? Doesn't have the same oomph when you save a web page as it does when you save a paper with a huge headline. We were cleaning Grandma's house after she died a couple of years ago, and came across a copy of the local paper from when Kennedy was assassinated.
Web papers are here to stay, and they're gonna do nothing but grow. Just don't count out print media yet.
Not to mention that some of the backbone providers make a good portion of their business by selling bandwidth to spammers. They won't cut their own throats like that.
I'm not sure about the patent issues, but I would think that it won't be that long before someone comes out with a HDTV tuner card for the PC. TV tuner cards have been out for many years, and it only seems natural that an HDTV card would be in the offing. This way you could use your monitor to watch HDTV. Granted, I don't forsee entire families crowding around the computer monitor to watch TV, but there would be a market for this... just look at how many people watch movies on their PCs. The monitor can do the resolutions needed, and then some.
I don't care how long they've been around....
on
Potato Bazookas
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· Score: 1
just the phrase "potato bazooka" is funny.
Excuse me, I need to go get some PVC pipe at Home Depot now.
There's a fair bit of people out there who use p2p software at work, and of course mostly to download music and movies because they've got a slow connection at home. Now suppose this turned out to be legit. It would only take a small percentage of affected corporations... these companies could sue the RIAA for security violations, hacking, and so forth. And even the RIAA wouldn't have enough lawyers to take on that kind of an onslaught.
My neighbor fixes cars out of his home for a living. He doesn't have a certification, but he's damn good at what he does. I trust him enough to work on my vehicles. And I don't see customers needing him to warranty his work - he does it right the first time - but they do come to him for all their maintanence and repair. And he's cheap. But I've seen plenty of these "certified" mechanics make serious mistakes (I know of one brake repair chain here in town that has left important parts like, oh, brake drums or pads off when they put a vehicle back together - many times) on cars they're being paid a ton of money to fix. The certification only means the mechanic has passed a written test. And if there's one mechanic with an ASE certification in one area, they can put the ASE sign on the shop. Certifications don't mean anything to a customer when they're waiting for a tow truck, or worse, an ambulance, due to a faulty repair.
As far as computer repairs go - I fix my own problems whenever possible. I also fix any problems that I have enough expertise for if friends or family call. I don't have a certification. As far as business goes - it's up to businesses to determine what standards work for them. If a company decides that it requires A+, MCSE, or any other certification from the computer repairman, that is their choice. The repairman can either have it or not do business with them. If a company wants to use someone that has no certification, but that they know is qualified, it's up to them. I've seen some people with A+ certs fresh out of school, and I wouldn't let them touch my computer. I also know people that have no formal training whatsoever who can fix anything they come across. Certifications mean nothing to a company if the certifed repairman screwed up the work. It's the customer's choice.
My grandfather was actually stationed very near there during WWII, and he actually saw the blast. He was with some buddies a few miles away when they saw and heard it. He says that wasn't a nuke. He does remember seeing those who were getting court-martialed being walked right past where he was working every day.
This was the type of thing that scared the crap out of him. He was on an ammunition ship in the Pacific, and he was well aware of what could happen if the wrong thing was dropped in the wrong place. He might not be an expert, but considering that he was handling the same stuff, I'd trust his judgement on it. Working on what was basically a floating bomb, coming under constant Japanese attck, including kamikaze bombers - for years he'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming. Always freaked out the family when he did...
I live about 40 miles east of this guy. The skies out here at night are amazing. I live in Tucson, which is the nearest big city, and which is also close to Kitt Peak, a renowned observatory. Due to the importance of Kitt Peak, Tucson has strict outdoor lighting ordinances. Lights have to face downward, certain types of lights are prohibited, etc. As a result you have pretty good star views even in the middle of the city. And it also means that his scopes don't suffer light pollution problems (40 miles may seem like a long way, but you can see the lights of Phoenix clouding the sky from 100 miles off) from any city lights. You get just a little out of town, and you get fantastic viewing. We also don't get clouded over very often.
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While Apple has hit a home run with a certain niche of their markets (myself included) I wonder if they're going to have to play with their pricing model a bit more and the marketing to get more people to switch to the Mini. I was in the Apple store this weekend, and they had Minis up and running, with the Apple keyboard and mouse and the 20" LCD display. The price card mentioned the monitor in very small type, and said nothing about the keyboard and mouse that I saw. If you thought you were getting a full computer set, you would have had to find out fom the sales staff - possibly after you said you'd buy one - that you needed the keyboard and mouse. And the Apple set is $59. They may have to come down on that item, or be more aggressive about informing the retail store customers that you can use whatever USB keyboard and mouse you want. People looking for the Mini know this. A lot of the potential "switch" market doesn't. The Apple wireless keyboard is even more expensive, and it requires Bluetooth. That may have also had a bit of a hand in them lowering Bluetooth prices.
One mistake it looks like they're making is the same one everyone else with the latest "iPod killer" has made... you're not going to beat the iPod by trying to compete on features and price.
As good a product the iPod is, it's got some features that you can't duplicate easily. One is simply the marketing job Apple has done with it from day one. Anything that wants to compete is going to have to make people think "ooh, I want one of those, not an iPod." And with the iPod aura, that's going to be tough.
Then there's the little matter of design. The iPod was a very well thought out design from day one, and it's evolved over the years into an even better product. The interface is about as intuitive as you're going to get. The product is solidly built. And the actual product itself is smooth and sleek to look at and handle. I've used my brother's Zen 40gb, and while it's a good product, it just isn't as good as the iPod. Much of that is the aforementioned design.
Also, Creative players, are, AFAIK, not Mac compatible. (At least they don't express anything about Mac compatibility on their site.) With the possibility of Apple gaining market share via the Mac Mini, this could turn many buyers away from Creative products.
Your typical CRT TV may not be better, but a CRT HDTV will outperform a flat HDTV. And it'll be a hell of a lot cheaper too.
In CMYK, printing a color on top of another color makes things darker. Yellow dots would not show up on the black ink - they would actually darken things up. If you knew exactly what you were looking for, where you were looking for it at, and what a yellow/black overprint looks like, you *might* see it. Obviously, if it is printing on the black, the agencies in question know whee to look and what they're looking for.
You can get a expandable x86 PC for $800. You can also get a new eMac for $800. However, consider a typical graphic arts workstation - one of Apple's strongest suits. You're running Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark (or InDesign), Acrobat, and Distiller, often at the same time. And you're working with files that are in the hundreds of MBs. Considering that you need your files to render quickly so that you're not spending half your time waiting for the system, and that you need a stable system, what kind of money do you think you're going to spend on a x86 PC that can handle that kind of workflow all day, every day? You're not going to be able to build that kind of workhorse PC for much less money than what Apple is charging. If you don't need the $2000 Power Mac workstation, there's far cheaper options available. And if you don't need the $2000 workhorse PC, there's far cheaper options available there too.
I would say it's kind of surprising that they didn't have a backup plan to get the files to the printing plant (i.e. convert to the necessary format, usually pdf in this case, or if possible use the Quark files and eps artwork, burn it to a CD or write to a removable hard drive and drive it to the printing plant)... But considering the dead stop everything goes to at the paper I work at if the network goes down, I'm not surprised. And that's with the printing plant on the premises.
But it can be done. And there realistically should be a backup plan to get the paper to the printer. Chances are, you'll never need it, but the one time you do it can save you millions. Start thinking about all of those ads - those things are friggin' expensive. Now imagine that all of your advertisers are going to want credit. Many of them are going to want the entire cost of the ad written off, and considering how many of them are regular advertisers, they'll be getting their wish. In a major market like Chicago, you can run up into the millions very quickly.
The EzDVD's are out at all the convenience stores in town, and have been for a few months now. I've been asking the clerks - not one of them has sold a single disc.
Incidentally, quite a few people out there have been working on building up their DVD collections. The "play-once" model is a lose-lose for the studios. Let's say Bob buys a few DVDs a month to add to his collection, typically movies that he enjoyed the hell out of and some of which are coming to DVD after a very long wait. (A la SCTV.) Bob isn't going to spend six bucks on a disc that he can't keep on the shelf. But if the Bobs of the world were to adopt the "play-once" model, the studios would sell a $5 disc for each movie - instead of a $15 DVD. These guys have such a fixation on piracy that they'll shoot themselves in the foot to stop it.
This may also appeal to flustered IT departments that are sick of blowing big pieces of their budget on data recovery. When I keep important data on my hard drive instead of on the company's server, I'm risking a write up, particularly if said drive crashes. When a company VP does the same thing, well, hey, that's a VP, let's fork out a couple of thousand bucks to a data recovery company. Going to a web-based system means even the higher-ups have to adhere to the IT departments rules regarding data storage.
This might be a case of NASA unintentionally catching lightning in a bottle. First you have China sending a man into orbit, and also announcing aggressive plans for space and possibly the moon. Then you have the success of the Spirit landing, especially so soon after what's looking like a big setback for the ESA on a similar mission.
We really can't afford to be passed up by China in the space programs. The implications on many fronts, from technological, military, and national stature are too important. As the wars of the 20th century were swung by air superiority, a future war bewtween the US and China could easily be swung by space superiority. (Imagine how blind our forces would be if our satellites were disabled or destroyed.)
And we've proven we can get craft to Mars and land them safely. Granted, there have been some spectacular failures, but the US is the only nation to put functioning equipment on the Martian surface. With humans at the controls we would dramatically lessen the risk of a crash on the surface. There wouldn't be anxiety over whether the airbags were deploying or what petal the ship was landing on. The biggest issue would be getting supplies there ahead of time and being sure they landed. We'd have to send supplies and a means of getting off the surface ahead of time. Astronauts would be spending several months on the surface, and there is no emergency return, so we'd need to be sure that everything is in place.
I think those two factors - a space race with China and our ability to get craft to Mars - came together at the right time. A successful manned Mars mission would be a stunning success for mankind, and if we're going to do it, now is a good time to start the planning process.
We got one in '83. 16K, regular basic. Had it upgraded to 64K extended basic a year later. Along the way I learned a ton on that machine and I had a blast doing it. I built up quite an arsenal of games on that thing. And of course you could always tape that certain pin on a game cartridge, and it wouldn't run until you would type in the correct EXEC code. What that ended up meaning is that I had practically the entire CoCo cartridge collection on a cassette.
There was the myriad of graphics modes on the CoCo - low res (VERY low res), the hi-res "pmode" group, and the semigraphics modes that fell in between. (One of my favorite Coco games, Protector, was written in semigraphics.) You could only get the semigraphics through assembly language.
And of course we were subscribers to Rainbow, and learned to curse effectively while debugging typos after working for hours to type in those programs. Looking back, I don't see why we never did Rainbow on Tape. Speaking of tape, I wore out numerous cassette recorders on that computer. Can't you still hear that low screeching they made when they were running and you wanted to listen to make sure it took? The tapes on the CoCo would load faster than the disk on a C-64. A few friends had C-64s, and I remember wondering why they bothered with a disk if it was going to take so long? That was the main reason CoCo users bought disk drives - they loaded in a hurry. We never did get a disk for ours, and we used that computer almost constantly from the time we got it until '91.
To this day, every time I see one at a yard sale, my wife tells me "don't even think about it" before I can get to it.,..
Google is already a part of the nation's everyday vocabulary. We "google" things when we want to find them. Almost every time internet searching is alluded to in a news story, you'll see "use a search engine, such as Google.com" soon after.
No business is bulletproof, but Google right now is one of the strongest internet names. People like Google because there's only as much whiz-bang as you need, and it's as effective as internet searching as been for the last few years. The main page weighs in, IIRC, at under 13K of bandwidth. Far quicker and less obtrusive than MSN or Amazon. Even on a dial-up connection it's almost instantaneous. You don't get any pop-ups on Google, and for those poor souls unfortunate enough to still use IE, Google even offers a tool that will stop pop-ups. The tools that they offer are useful and unobtrusive. They don't take over or alter your sysem, such as pretty much anything from Microsoft. (And I doubt Google DRM Software is going to be among next year's offered downloads. Unlike Windows Media Player...)
And Google has street smarts that you can't get from any boardroom. For example, news.google.com was a weekend project that a couple of employees threw together. And it got a lot of competitors' attention when they saw just how good a job they did. They're always adapting. I've seen many quotes from discussions long past show up again on message boards, and they're pulled from the Google Groups services.
While Google may not be a utopia, it's got what it needs to stand up to the MS and Amazon assault. A strong base, a smart and adaptable workforce, and great public recognition. The market is adapting to Google, not the other way around. Considering they don't like to sit on their past achievements too much, I think they'll hold up fine.
I should have added that I'm not ripping against Scribus- I'm all for new players in the DTP department, and I intend to try it on my Linux box. I was responding to those who are railing against the price tag of Quark. Incidentally, there's a movement in our IT department to convert to InDesign. Many of the people in the building, though, have no computer savvy whatsoever, and there would be immense retraining involved.
As for direct to plate - it is catching on faster now that the prices of the systems and consumables have dropped. We'll be switching soon. But if you run any more than two plates off, it's actually cheaper to go with film. The plate cost is doubled with CTP. Once you get past two plates, the negative has already paid for itself. Basically, the smaller the newspaper, the bigger the savings. One other thing - there are many mistakes we can fix on negatives before we plate. This will no longer be the case.
We use Quark at our newspaper, naturally. There's a few hundred licenses in the company. It is a damn expensive app. But consumables are even more expensive. We print directly to negatives, and film costs a good chunk of change. If there's a problem, we have to re-print the negs. If we have to re-plate, that's a bunch more money. If we don't know there's a problem till the press starts, there'll be hell to pay. Some papers are using new technology that lets them print directly to the printing plate. The materials for that are even more expensive. With Quark, we know what we're getting when we click "Print." $1000 may be expensive for a program, but we use more than that in film and plates every day. Quark Inc. isn't a very well liked company - but when you know what you're getting for sure in your finished product, that makes all the difference.
I can see what you're thinking there, but you also gotta realize that no one wins the Tour because of superior equipment. Aside from some brand differences, these guys are all on equal bikes. They're all extremely light, and they've all got the latest components.
Furthermore, add in that there's a more than a few people running OS's such as Linux or OSX which require root access to do anything of consequence. That could throw a little wrench in the plans. The RIAA would have to spend so much time hacking into individual computers that it would be no return on investment.
Now, if they actually figured out that the business model is the problem... heck, that makes too much sense. I mean, Apple couldn't possibly be doing well with iTunes Music Store, could they?
I have a 2003 Saturn Ion. I haven't heard the first thing about a 42V electrical system, and I've got a good old standard 12V battery in it. It does, however, have electric power steering. I'm not exactly sure that the steering is the reason for the 42V change. By the way, electric power steering rocks. I've never had a car that can turn as quickly as this one. And since the computer keeps an eye on speed and adjusts steering effort accordingly, it's very driver friendly.
I work at a newspaper in the prepress department... we use Quark 4.11 on older G4 towers. Single 400 mhz processors, 448 MB RAM. The newsroom mostly uses old Blueberry iMacs. Haven't changed since they were installed. I don't think the 5 time hardware upgrade is going to bother the core user base. Although, I can guarantee, our IT department is itching to get us to OSX...
I work for a newspaper (actually, two, since it's a JOA) and as I watch the presses whir in the next room over, it's easy to see just what a behemoth the entire newspaper printing industry is. I see firsthand how much newsprint is used in a matter of a few hours, and it's staggering. When you think about how many newspapers there are in this country, it's amazing that there's enough trees to supply all of them and still leave a few forests standing. The press outside the door is over three stories high and one hundred fifty feet long. Some operations have many multiples of presses like this. It requires constant maintanence and repair to keep running and printing a million or two pages an hour. All of this costs money. A LOT of money. You would think that newspapers would be eager to chuck all of this, go online, and save millions per year.
But it's not quite that easy. First, the majority of revenues for a newspaper are by far from advertising. More than half the available space in the paper is for ads. And these ads are not cheap, especially when you see color or full page ads. And, like it or not, ads do drive a significant portion of readership. If you're looking to buy a car, or maybe a house, the odds are you've been looking in the paper. You can't read ads as fast online as you can when you've got a whole page of classifieds in front of you. How many newspapers did you pick up when you were looking for your last job? There are more and more job opportunities online, and many companies aggressively recruit online, but a classified "help wanted" ad is extremely effective. Place one and see the applications and resumes flow in. Another point about ads driving readership - grocery ads, coupons, ads for your local electronics store, the weekly Target ad... these all often lead people to buy a paper. It's why the Sunday paper has the largest circulation.
Next, there's the whole easy portability thing. The majority of people don't have a laptop or PDA with them when they're out somewhere, and most of those that do don't have internet access readily available. A newspaper, on the other hand, is easy to take anywhere. Buy it and go. When you're done, you can leave it for the next reader if you want. Or maybe you are the next reader. On the not-too-distant horizon is electronic ink, and that has a greater potential to replace printed newspapers than the web does, for many of the same reasons mentioned here. Although I don't think too many people will be eager to clip the coupons from their e-ink paper. Might get messy.
And last, while the web has made it easier to find news, there is still the cultural mindset that goes with the newspaper. See a story you like, or a photo? Cut it out and stick it on the fridge. Historical front page? Doesn't have the same oomph when you save a web page as it does when you save a paper with a huge headline. We were cleaning Grandma's house after she died a couple of years ago, and came across a copy of the local paper from when Kennedy was assassinated.
Web papers are here to stay, and they're gonna do nothing but grow. Just don't count out print media yet.
Not to mention that some of the backbone providers make a good portion of their business by selling bandwidth to spammers. They won't cut their own throats like that.
I'm not sure about the patent issues, but I would think that it won't be that long before someone comes out with a HDTV tuner card for the PC. TV tuner cards have been out for many years, and it only seems natural that an HDTV card would be in the offing. This way you could use your monitor to watch HDTV. Granted, I don't forsee entire families crowding around the computer monitor to watch TV, but there would be a market for this... just look at how many people watch movies on their PCs. The monitor can do the resolutions needed, and then some.
just the phrase "potato bazooka" is funny.
Excuse me, I need to go get some PVC pipe at Home Depot now.
There's a fair bit of people out there who use p2p software at work, and of course mostly to download music and movies because they've got a slow connection at home. Now suppose this turned out to be legit. It would only take a small percentage of affected corporations... these companies could sue the RIAA for security violations, hacking, and so forth. And even the RIAA wouldn't have enough lawyers to take on that kind of an onslaught.
My neighbor fixes cars out of his home for a living. He doesn't have a certification, but he's damn good at what he does. I trust him enough to work on my vehicles. And I don't see customers needing him to warranty his work - he does it right the first time - but they do come to him for all their maintanence and repair. And he's cheap. But I've seen plenty of these "certified" mechanics make serious mistakes (I know of one brake repair chain here in town that has left important parts like, oh, brake drums or pads off when they put a vehicle back together - many times) on cars they're being paid a ton of money to fix. The certification only means the mechanic has passed a written test. And if there's one mechanic with an ASE certification in one area, they can put the ASE sign on the shop. Certifications don't mean anything to a customer when they're waiting for a tow truck, or worse, an ambulance, due to a faulty repair.
As far as computer repairs go - I fix my own problems whenever possible. I also fix any problems that I have enough expertise for if friends or family call. I don't have a certification. As far as business goes - it's up to businesses to determine what standards work for them. If a company decides that it requires A+, MCSE, or any other certification from the computer repairman, that is their choice. The repairman can either have it or not do business with them. If a company wants to use someone that has no certification, but that they know is qualified, it's up to them. I've seen some people with A+ certs fresh out of school, and I wouldn't let them touch my computer. I also know people that have no formal training whatsoever who can fix anything they come across. Certifications mean nothing to a company if the certifed repairman screwed up the work. It's the customer's choice.
My grandfather was actually stationed very near there during WWII, and he actually saw the blast. He was with some buddies a few miles away when they saw and heard it. He says that wasn't a nuke. He does remember seeing those who were getting court-martialed being walked right past where he was working every day.
This was the type of thing that scared the crap out of him. He was on an ammunition ship in the Pacific, and he was well aware of what could happen if the wrong thing was dropped in the wrong place. He might not be an expert, but considering that he was handling the same stuff, I'd trust his judgement on it. Working on what was basically a floating bomb, coming under constant Japanese attck, including kamikaze bombers - for years he'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming. Always freaked out the family when he did...
I live about 40 miles east of this guy. The skies out here at night are amazing. I live in Tucson, which is the nearest big city, and which is also close to Kitt Peak, a renowned observatory. Due to the importance of Kitt Peak, Tucson has strict outdoor lighting ordinances. Lights have to face downward, certain types of lights are prohibited, etc. As a result you have pretty good star views even in the middle of the city. And it also means that his scopes don't suffer light pollution problems (40 miles may seem like a long way, but you can see the lights of Phoenix clouding the sky from 100 miles off) from any city lights. You get just a little out of town, and you get fantastic viewing. We also don't get clouded over very often.